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Lao to request $1 million for programming fund

Amanda Michaels | Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Outgoing student body president Jeremy Lao and vice president Emily Chin will present a proposal for a one million dollar student programming endowment and a piece regarding the publication of Teacher Course Evaluations (TCEs) at Thursday’s Board of Trustees meeting.Lao said he will ask for the programming endowment to supplement the 54,000 dollars already granted to the Campus Programming Council (CPC) for speakers and concerts.”The current amount granted to CPC is simply just not enough to bring good concerts and speakers to campus,” said Lao. “We determined that 50,000 dollars was a safe amount that could be used endowment and focused specifically on concerts and speakers each year.”The endowment would potentially be supplemented by revenue from market returns, profits from any of the concerts CPC and continued donations, Lao said. Though Lao said “all of the bases are covered,” he still has concerns about the perceived feasibility of the proposal.”The big-gest challenge when we ask for this money is that the University has already approved a 10-year plan,” Lao said. “Basically, we’re asking to become a priority, and to secure the funds through a capital campaign with the development office.”The presentation will also address the issue of TCEs, after the Faculty Senate recently came out strongly against their publication, as they found the TCE forms themselves flawed.Lao said he will ask the Board of Trustees to have the Office of Provost make this issue a priority, but will not come out directly in favor of their publication.”Judging from faculty reaction, it’s pretty evident that they don’t want TCEs published, so asking the provost’s office to do so just wouldn’t be respectful,” Lao said. “I want to see the provost’s office address faculty concerns so we can work towards the publication.”Lao and Chin have been working on the report since the beginning of the semester, after they previewed a portion of its content at the fall Board of Trustees meeting.”The Trust-ees seemed receptive to the endowment when we included it [in the winter meeting], so it basically comes down to having a good presentation and proposal,” Lao said. “Emily and I saw [TCEs and the student programming endowment] as the two most important issues at the time, so that’s what we’re going to deal with.”Lao declined to provide an advance copy of the proposal to The Observer.